On instructions from my Government, I should like to convey to you the following information.

At 2330 hours on Thursday, 19 August 2021, the occupying Israeli authorities once again attacked the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, firing salvos of missiles from south-eastern Beirut towards the environs of the capital, Damascus, and the environs of the city of Homs.

This new, treacherous Israeli aggression is the latest example of the systematic and criminal policies, one of which is prolonging the terrorist war against Syria, that are being pursued steadily by the parties responsible for shedding Syrian blood and serves as a demonstration of the blatant manner in which they swap roles with one another. Every country in the world is aware that the main purpose of such attacks is to raise the morale of those parties’ terrorists, gunmen and criminals, including those in the north-eastern region occupied by the United States military and those in the north-western region occupied by the Turkish forces of the Erdoğan regime, as well as of their terrorist proxies in Dar‘a, in flagrant violation of international law, internationally agreed norms, the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant resolutions of the Organization, all of which call for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria to be respected.

The occupying Israeli authorities’ continued terrorist attacks will not thwart or intimidate the Syrian people, the Syrian Arab Army and its allies, nor will those attacks deter them from defeating Da’esh and the Nusrah Front in their various guises, along with the rest of the terrorist groups partnering with Israel and the United States of America to perpetrate acts of terrorism. Instead, such attacks will only make the Syrian people, the Syrian Arab Army and its allies more certain that they will inevitably triumph over terrorism and restore the occupied Syrian Golan by all means guaranteed under international law.

The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates that Israel would not be able to continue with such an aggressive and dangerous approach were it not for the green light it has been given by and the unrestrained and constant support it receives from certain States, particularly the United States Administration, which is currently befuddled by its misadventures in Afghanistan.

The Syrian Arab Republic once again calls upon the Security Council and the Secretary-General to fulfil their responsibilities under the Charter, the most significant of which is the maintenance of international peace and security, by taking firm and immediate action to prevent those Israeli attacks from recurring, compelling Israel to respect the resolutions concerning the Disengagement of Forces Agreement and holding it accountable for the acts of terrorism and crimes that it commits against the peoples of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine and for its continued support of terrorist organizations, each of which constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter, international law, Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 350 (1974) and 497 (1981), all resolutions related to the crisis in Syria, Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) and all international counter-terrorism instruments and resolutions.

I should be grateful if the present letter could be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

Bassam Sabbagh